Happy Thursday (a.k.a. Weekend Eve!)

First off, I want to tell you guys that I’m officially on Instagram now!

For some reason it intimidated me, so I’ve been avoiding it for a while.  However, now I LOVE it and I’ve found it’s pretty easy to use too.  I still don’t know quite what I’m doing though.  Maybe you guys can teach me a thing or two about how to use it!

Anyway, you can find me here if you so desire.

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I’ve really been enjoying my “ultra healthy” diet this week.  It’s tough, definitely takes discipline, but I love it anyway.

I also feel really, really good!

I didn’t eat very well last week.  I wasn’t terrible, but I was pretty lax.  I definitely ate too much processed food and enjoyed sugar a little too much.  On Saturday night, I felt pretty crappy.

I couldn’t decide if I was getting sick or if my body was just mad at me for being a slacker.  I felt achy, rundown, tired, unmotivated and very “blah-like.”  However, that “blah-ness” is what motivated me to shape it up BIG TIME this week!

Funny thing is….I feel great now!  I don’t feel tired, achy or “blah-like” at all!  It’s funny how that works; feed your body crap=feel like crap, feed your body well=feel well!

Pretty basic concept.

I also have to mention that on Sunday and Monday, I had terrible headaches!  I hardly ever get headaches; maybe once every few months.  Well, these headaches were killer and I definitely think they were a withdrawal-type symptom as my body got rid of the crappy food in my system.

Totally weird…and a little freaky.

With that being said, I love good, clean food and love how I feel when I eat it!

Oh, and I still love crappy, sugary, fried, processed foods too, dang it.  My body doesn’t like them though. 🙁

Anyway, moving on…

I started my morning off with the YUMMIEST breakfast!  I wasn’t feelin’ the “veggie vibe” this morning so I just scrambled up 1 egg + 4 egg whites with some ham and topped it with a little cheese.  I also had half of a sweet potato (topped with cinnamon) and some grapes on the side.

I loved this breakfast SO much and it only took me about 5 minutes to prepare.  I was stuffed afterward too!  Oh, and I calculated this breakfast to equal 306 calories, 23 carbs and 29 grams of protein.  Awesome.

You definitely get a lot more bang for your buck with good, clean, real food.

I went to the gym yesterday morning and grabbed a quick, easy breakfast as I ran out the door…

A Granny Smith apple and some unsalted nuts.  I ate half of this before my workout and the other half afterward.  It was perfect.

I also got a great workout in.  We did a whole bunch of deadlifts and my hamstrings are definitely feelin’ it today!  We only did 80 pushups (we usually do 120+), but this time we did the pushups very slowly.  We counted to 2 or 3 as we went down and then counted to 2 or 3 as we went back up.  Make sense?  We also obliterated the abs.  Man.  We did a bunch of different kinds of crunches for 7-8 minutes and then ended with 100 bicycle crunches.  Awesome.

I also took another picture of my fun class.

Do you see that cute old guy in the back?  Well, he is darling.  He comes to most of the classes I go to and he always works so hard!  I’m so inspired by him.  He also helps everyone put the benches away when the class is over.  What a sweetheart.

Age is definitely not an excuse to not exercise!

After the gym, I ran over to Walmart with my two littlest kiddos.  The Walmart we went to happened to have a Subway (as in sandwiches) in it, so we decided to get some lunch too.

I ordered a footlong ham sandwich for my kiddos, but they didn’t come close to finishing it.  We brought the rest of it home and they had it for lunch today.  Bonus.

Yes, my five year old doesn’t quite know how to smile. 🙂  He looks like he’s in pain.

Oh, and do you see that guy in the background giving us a weird look?  Yes, that’s pretty typical for my crazy, photo taking, blogging life, lol!  He’s probably thinking, “Man, that chick really gets excited about Subway!”

I’m sure he thought I was completely nutzo when I took this selfie too…

Yes, as a blogger you sometimes just have to “swallow the pride”, take strange pictures and move on. 😉

Anyway, I ordered a Tuscan Chicken salad topped with some Balsamic Vinaigrette at Subway and it was great.

Next time, I’ll order it with the dressing on the side though.  There was a little too much on there.

Later on, I took my oldest son to get a haircut.  He was so shaggy and in desperate need of one, but for some reason he didn’t want a haircut!

I just don’t get it.

I tried to take a “before” pic of him, but he was being a little stinker…

Lovely.

However, after bribing him with ice cream, he agreed to get it cut AND let me take his picture.  Oh, and yes I told him he was totally spoiled…

And a little bit bratty.

Oh and folks, my baby boy is starting to look like an old man now.  I’m really not liking it.

I didn’t know what in the heck to fix for dinner last night, so I decided to go with an old favorite.  I made Kev’s mom’s recipe for Hamburger Potato Casserole, except I subbed lean ground turkey for the hamburger.  It’s one of Kev’s favorite meals.

It’s not totally healthy though.  It has cheese and Cream of Whatever soup in it, but I subbed my homemade version of Cream of Chicken soup and it turned out great.

I served it with some corn and fruit.  Here’s my plate…

I debated if I should eat it because there is a miniscule amount of flour in the casserole (in the cream of chicken soup recipe), but I decided to eat it anyway.  Just to recap…I’m not eating grains until Thanksgiving.  Oh, and technically corn is a grain, not a vegetable, but I ate that too.

I’ve done really well and have steered clear of oats, wheat, rice and flour (except for what was in the casserole), so I felt pretty good about it.

Oh, and my kids all LOVE this recipe!  My 10 year old had the leftovers for breakfast this morning and my 5 year old asked to have the leftovers for lunch today, but they were all gone!

I won’t share the recipe with you guys today, but I’ll share it soon.

Oh, and I’ve been enjoying some yummy snacks lately too.  I LOVE Chocolate Protein Pudding and last night I had it topped with some pecans.  It was awesome!

A couple days ago I mixed some raspberry Chobani yogurt with some light cottage cheese and topped it with some unsalted nuts and Craisins.  I loved it so much!

Yes, I’ve been missin’ my grains, but I still love all the food I’ve been eating!

Even though I’m not eating grains, I’m definitely not on a “low-carb” diet.  I’m getting plenty of carbs from fruit, veggies, yogurt and things.

I haven’t been feeling that “low-carb diet slump” at all.  Yay.

Well, I have lots to do and not enough time to do it, so I better run!  Have a wonderful day!

Questions for you guys!

• Have you ever felt withdrawal symptoms after cutting out sugar, carbs or processed foods?
• What’s your favorite form of exercise?
• Do you have teenagers that don’t like getting their haircut?
• Any yummy healthy meal or snack ideas?